Portland: Carry mistakes cause avoidable death.
Keep an eye on the gentleman in grey t-shirt and khaki pants.
The video is not the best in terms of quality, but I could swear the guy is just carrying the gun in his pocket and the butt is sticking out. This is the testimony of a witness:
According to Smith, the man who was shot was “trying to be a good samaritan” and break up the fight that had ensued. University police appeared, Smith said, but did not appear to try to stop the fight.
Smith said the victim, who had a gun attached to his right side, tripped while trying to break up the fight.
“The gun slipped out of the holster when he had fallen, and I think he may have tried to retrieve it,” Smith said. “Then they said ‘gun.’”
That’s when police fired, she said.
“There was absolutely no hesitation at all,” she said. “[The officer] went straight for his gun.”2 PSU Officers Placed On Paid Leave Following Fatal Shooting
If you are going to carry, do so in a secure manner and I mean in a way that the gun will remain secured to your body and not scamper around. Next, if the gun should happen to fall, don’t go chasing after it as sometimes during the grab you may pull the trigger or in like this case somebody pulled the trigger of his sidearm.
And there and very important: if you carrying, you must remember Jim Cirillo’s advice “You are not sworn to endanger your life to apprehend a dangerous criminal, nor you are paid to do it.” And that goes double if you involve yourself in a confrontation where at least one gun is present: Yours.
(I stole that last bit from Michael Bane)
The guy in the blue shirt was an asshole and I don’t care if he was my friend, he deserved an educational beatdown for his behavior. Instead, he is alive and his friend or good Samaritan is dead.